SUNRISE – Dumb luck? Well, the Rangers were dumb enough to commit six third-period penalties to make Dominic Moore’s high-wire, game-tying, goal from behind the goal line with three seconds to play look like incredible good fortune.

But Wayne Gretzky banked in enough goals off enough backs of legs to suggest Moore, who has shown plenty of head on his shoulders during his rookie season, made the wisest choice of dwindling options, keeping the game alive for the greatest shootout shooter in NHL history, Peter Prucha.

After Martin Straka and Jaromir Jagr had hit posts, goalie Roberto Luongo had robbed Michael Nylander with his glove and three Panthers had failed to beat Henrik Lundqvist, Prucha, coach Tom Renney’s fourth choice just like on Saturday against New Jersey, scored his second shootout winner in three games. Just like it was old hat.

“Maybe because we were away, I wasn’t nervous this time,” Prucha said.

Lundqvist said he was only a little, but he could have fooled us, like he did Kristian Huselius into firing high and wide to nail down a 4-3 victory, the most improbable one of an improbable 9-5-3 Ranger start.

“We stayed with it,” said Renney after the Rangers had a hard time staying out of their own way. One goaltender interference penalty on Nylander, which erased a power play, was an outrage (“we overcame a lot and that’s all I’m going to say,” Renney sniffed about the calls) but even after Serge Payer was caught holding Nylander’s stick with 1:16 to go, Michael Rozsival committed a cross-check.

So it was four-on-four when Moore fired off defenseman Jay Bouwmeester and maybe Luongo. Bouwmeester thought it hit his arm when the replay showed it was his leg and Luongo denied any contact at all when it appeared to hit the back of his leg, too. But the puck was unquestionably in the net and the Rangers very much alive.

“[Steve] Rucchin] was strong on the puck, so I tried to back away when I saw he came up with it and he managed to get to me,” said Moore. “Sometimes, you can get the goalie when he is leaning.

“He has to be conscious of things around him, and sometimes is just not expecting a shot from that angle.”

Lundqvist, a rookie member of the goalie’s union, backed his counterpart up on that.

“Your pad is not straight, so it’s really, really, hard to lock the post, the only way you can lock is with your arm,” he said. “And you have to worry about all the guys in front, too.”